Simnel cake is one of the great British Easter bakes: a light, spiced fruit cake with a layer of golden marzipan baked through the middle and another pressed onto the top, finished with eleven little marzipan balls for the apostles. It is rich, fragrant and quietly celebratory. It is also, in its traditional form, a serious sugar delivery system — caster sugar in the sponge, icing sugar in the marzipan, and glacé cherries adding yet more. The good news is that the bake adapts beautifully. This version keeps the spice, the fruit and the symbolism, replacing refined sugar with a granulated sweetener blend and making the marzipan from ground almonds and powdered sweetener instead.

What Changes When You Cut the Sugar

Sugar does three jobs in a fruit cake: it sweetens, it holds moisture, and it browns and caramelises in the oven. Remove it and you have to compensate. Erythritol-based sweeteners, which are what most UK supermarket "granulated sweetener" tubs contain, do not brown or hold water the way sugar does, and they have a faintly cooling finish. A blend sweetened 1:1 with sugar (often erythritol with a little stevia or monk fruit) behaves best in baking, so check the label and use one that states a 1:1 replacement.

Two practical warnings. First, dried fruit still contains plenty of natural sugar, so this is a refined-sugar-free cake rather than a sugar-free one in the strictest sense — soak the fruit in tea or juice rather than syrup and you keep the total down. Second, xylitol is highly toxic to dogs, even in tiny amounts. If your household includes a dog, keep every bowl, spoon and crumb well out of reach.

The Spiced Fruit Cake Base

You will need a deep 20cm round tin, greased and lined with a double layer of greaseproof paper with a collar standing a few centimetres above the rim.

• 500g mixed dried fruit — sultanas, raisins, currants and chopped unsweetened apricots
• 150ml strong black tea or unsweetened orange juice, for soaking
• 175g softened unsalted butter, or 150g coconut oil
• 150g granulated sweetener blend (1:1 with sugar)
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 150g self-raising flour
• 50g ground almonds
• 2 tsp mixed spice and 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange

Put the dried fruit in a bowl, pour over the tea or juice, cover and leave overnight, or at least four hours. Cream the butter and sweetener for a full four minutes — it will look looser and paler than a sugar creamed mixture, and that is fine. Beat the eggs in one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour if it threatens to split. Fold in the remaining flour, the ground almonds, the spices and the zests, then stir in the soaked fruit with any liquid left in the bowl. The batter should drop slowly from the spoon; loosen with a tablespoon of milk if it is stiff.

Sugar-Free Marzipan in Ten Minutes

Real marzipan is roughly half icing sugar, so this is where the swap matters most. Blitz 100g of granulated sweetener in a small blender until it is as fine as icing sugar. Mix with 200g ground almonds, 1 egg white, 1 tsp almond extract and 1 tsp lemon juice, then knead on a clean surface until it comes together into a smooth, slightly stiff ball. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Divide into two: one piece for the middle layer, one for the top, plus a small piece for the eleven balls. This marzipan will not be as pliable as shop-bought and it will taste less sweet, so keep the layer thin — about 5mm — so the almonds lead rather than the sweetener.

Baking, Toasting and the Eleven Balls

Heat the oven to 150°C fan, 170°C conventional, gas mark 3. Spoon half the batter into the tin, level it, then lay the first marzipan round on top. Add the rest of the batter and smooth the surface. Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Check after 1 hour 15 minutes and cover loosely with foil if the top is catching. Cool completely in the tin.

Brush the top of the cake with a little beaten egg white or warmed sugar-free apricot spread, press on the second marzipan round and brush that too. Slide under a hot grill for 2 to 3 minutes until patched with gold, watching it constantly — sweetener-free marzipan goes from pale to scorched very quickly. Roll the remaining marzipan into eleven small balls, arrange them around the edge, and return to the grill for 30 seconds.

Troubleshooting, Storage and Swaps

• Cake feels crumbly: sweeteners hold less moisture than sugar. Add an extra 25g ground almonds and let the cake cool fully before slicing.
• Gummy middle: usually underbaking. Give it another 15 minutes at 140°C fan and test again.
• Cooling aftertaste: swap half the sweetener for a monk fruit or allulose blend, which has a rounder flavour.
• Storage: wrap in greaseproof paper then foil and keep in a tin for up to a week. It improves after two days. Freeze, well wrapped, for up to three months.
• Vegan version: use coconut oil, two flax eggs and a little aquafaba in the marzipan instead of egg white.

Serve in thin slices with a pot of strong tea. The cake is best at room temperature, and it travels well to a Easter table or a picnic if the weather behaves.